Trump’s Own EPA Says His New Coal-Friendly Rules Will Result in 1,400 More Deaths A Year

The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled its new plan to ease Obama-era restrictions on coal-fired power plants, which its own Environmental Protection Agency openly admits could cause up to 1,400 premature deaths each year due to increased carbon emissions, the New York Times reports.

The EPA has released a 289-page report that offers details on the impact of Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy rule, which aims to reverse Obama-era cuts to power plant carbon pollution.

The new rules would give individual states the ability to craft their own regulations for coal-fired power plants.

The Clean Power Plan, which was proposed during the Obama administration in 2015 but never went into effect, sought to shift electricity production to less carbon-intensive sources.

In EPA’s own analysis, the most likely outcome of the administration’s new rule would result in 470 to 1,400 additional premature deaths every year by 2030. The rise in pollutants is also expected to bring up to 96,000 new cases of exacerbated asthma by 2030, the agency concluded.

California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, took to Twitter to criticize Trump’s new rules, which he called a “declaration of war against America and all of humanity.” The new regulations have to go through a public comment period of 60 days before they are finalized.

This is a declaration of war against America and all of humanity – it will not stand. Truth and common sense will triumph over Trump’s insanity. https://t.co/bfdhPH6ewC